Financier made bankrupt after £3,000 muddle

A MILLIONAIRE financier who founded two merchant banks was "very embarrassed" yesterday after learning that he had been declared bankrupt for failing to settle a debt of less than £3,400.

Sir Iain Noble, who also owns an estate on the Isle of Skye, owed the money to a crofter who went to court to win a title to his house, and was also awarded legal costs.

When Sir Iain failed to pay, due to a "muddle" over the name that should appear on the cheque, the crofter, Iain Robertson, went to Portree sheriff court and successfully sought his sequestration.

The move makes a bankrupt of one of the most prominent figures in the Scottish financial community, and the Accountant in Bankruptcy will be asked to appoint an interim trustee to administer his 23,000-acre estate, and numerous other interests.

Sir Iain, whose lawyers will have to go to the Court of Session to have the affair sorted out, said: "Apparently there was a court case.

We haven't heard anything officially about it. I was away all the last fortnight. There certainly has been a muddle and I'm very embarrassed.

"There was a cheque which was overdue, I believe. It was paid but the cheque was sent to the wrong place.

"The people who received it, the people who sent out the papers about the court case, did not send it back to us until the very last minute. But even then, it was actually paid last Wednesday and it had gone through the bank account." He said he was not certain of the consequences of being declared bankrupt.

The cheque that should have been paid to Mr Robertson was instead made out to a sheriff's officer. By the time it was returned to Sir Iain's estate to be corrected, Mr Robertson had gone to court.

He went to the Scottish Land Court last year to secure a title deed to the croft in an action that was not defended by Sir Iain.

The court gave Mr Robertson the deed, making him the occupier, rather than a tenant, and also awarded expenses of £3,363.

When the money did not appear, Mr Robertson went to the sheriff court to obtain a warrant to demand repayment, and on Monday successfully sought the landowner's sequestration.

"It was only proper the Scottish Land Court awarded judicial costs after he was required to obtain a decree to prise a title deed for his house and croft."

Mr Robertson, who has a small croft on Skye and a home in Taunton, Somerset, is on holiday in Malta. He spends half the year in Scotland, and regularly travels abroad.

Sir Iain was the co-founder of the merchant bank Noble Grossart in 1968, and in 1994 set up Noble & Co, which he left two years ago. He owns a hotel on Skye and is chairman and chief executive of Sir Iain Noble and Partners.